Friday, August 31, 2012

Remembering 9/11 - Part IV "Science & Chemistry"

I want to shout from the rooftops how amazing this interview is. To be honest, as I'm posting this I'm only 23 minutes into it but so many things have been said that made me feel the need to put this right up.

Please please please do whatever you can to watch this. As you do, ask yourself some questions.

1) What is the motive of the BBC interviewer?
2) What is the motive of Dr. Harris? He says it at about the 20 minute mark and it is fascinating.

I know this is over 2 hours long, and I've only seen 23, but please at least watch those 23 minutes. Please leave comments and let me know what you think.



Our Day

"The people succumbed to the wiles of ambitious and scheming leaders who oppressed them with burdensome taxes, who lulled them with hollow promises, who countenanced and even encouraged loose and lascivious living. These evil schemers led the people into terrible wars that resulted in the death of millions."

- Bank bailouts
- Ponzi Schemes
- Federal Income Tax and dozens of other taxes
- Hope and Change
- Bringing home the troops
- Buy a big home (a bigger one since interest rates are so low - no the BIGGEST ONE)
- US Debt, World Debt
- War in Iraq, War on Terror, War in Afghanistan, War on Drugs, War this, War that, Everything is War.

PEOPLE! That quote that is above...guess who said it? Any guesses? Guess who it was said about? Without browsing the internet, guess who said it and what people they are talking about. I'll give the answer in my next post. Leave the answer in the comment section and if you right I will praise you forever.

Remembering 9/11 - Part III "Under Pressure"

This video will make your stomach sick. Not sure who wants that, but this is a recorded phone call to 911 made by Kevin Cosgrove. At the end of the call he dies. If you're short on time, jump to the 4 minute mark and listed for little over a minute until the end of the call.


I will never forget the victims and the impact this tragedy had on their lives. RIP Kevin.

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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Remembering 9/11 Part II - Bombs in the Towers

Take 2:42 seconds of your day just to look at this video. When I saw this for the first time I wanted to cry.



I feel for the Policeman and Firefighters who not only sacrificed their lives, but have to keep a secret for fear of their lives. Assuming of course, that there was a conspiracy.

Remember 9/11 Part 1 - Three towers fell that day (not two)


I often hear it said that we can't let the 9/11 victims be forgotten, and we can't let their deaths be in vain. This is used as a motivation for war and revenge. Might I suggest that more death will not make their deaths any more sacred. 

In memory of those who died on 9/11, I would like to do my part, along with their family members (please see video) in attempting to reach anyone who will listen. My goal is to inform you of some things that seem to not add up. I make no accusations as to who is the culprit of the attacks, but I will say that I don't believe the story that is being told.






"And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed; for the Lord will not suffer that the blood of his saints, which shall be shed by them, shall always cry unto him from the ground for vengeance upon them and yet he avenge them not." Ether 8:22. 

Just take a few minutes and hear it from Geraldo and some family members of the victims. He talks about WTC Tower 7, the one no one talks about. It wasn't even mentioned in our governments 9/11 Commission Reporthttp://rememberbuilding7.org/10/








The article below explains a few facts that everyone should know to understand the importance of building seven and why we should know about it.

http://www.wtc7.net/articles/kimball/thirdskyscraper.html


On 9/11 a THIRD Skyscraper Plunged to Earth:
The Sudden Implosion of WTC Building 7

By David R. Kimball
July 30, 2005


“It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth … For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.”
-- Patrick Henry

“The important thing is to never stop questioning.”
-- Albert Einstein


Everyone remembers the Twin Towers exploding at 9:59AM and 10:28AM EDT on September 11, 2001. Comparatively few people can recall that there was a third massive skyscraper, also a part of the World Trade Center, which fell very rapidly to the ground on that day. This was World Trade Center Building 7.1
One reason that few remember WTC Building 7’s collapse is that after September 11th it has been treated, both in the media and in The 9/11 Commission Report, as if it didn’t happen.
“The total collapse of the third huge skyscraper late in the afternoon September 11thwas reported as if it were an insignificant footnote... most people never saw video of Building 7’s collapse… Incredibly, it is virtually impossible to find any mention of Building 7 in newspapers, magazines, or broadcast media reports after September 11th.” 2
“The Commission avoids another embarrassing problem – explaining how WTC 7 could have collapsed, also virtually at free-fall speed – by simply not mentioning the collapse of this building.” 3
The collapse of Building 7 at 5:20PM EDT was in itself a major event; the sudden and unexplained fall to earth of a 47-story steel-framed skyscraper is certainly news. Why has there been almost no mention of this in the U.S. media, and why was there no mention of Building 7’s collapse in The 9/11 Commission Report? These are questions of great significance, and they cry out for answers. To be able to approach any kind of explanation, however, first some pertinent and verified facts of the Building 7 aspect of 9/11 need to be scrutinized.
The following eleven facts have been compiled from the research of reputable sources – those who have dared to question and have devoted innumerable hours into discovering what really happened on 9/11.

FACT 1: WTC Building 7 was one of the largest buildings in downtown Manhattan. It was 47 stories tall, about half the height of the Towers, and took up an entire city block. It was 300 feet from the closest Twin Tower (the North Tower, WTC 1), and was a steel-framed, concretestructure.4

FACT 2: WTC Building 7 – on its 23rd floor – housed an Emergency Command Center for the City of New York that Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had built in the mid-1990’s. On the morning of September 11th, Mayor Giuliani did not go “to his Command Center – with its clear view of the Twin Towers – but to a makeshift, street-level headquarters at 75 Barkley Street.” WTC 7 also held the offices of numerous government agencies, including the Department of Defense, the CIA, the Secret Service, the IRS, and the Security and Exchange Commission.5 Late 2001 was the time of “the height of the investigation into Enron, so the majority of Enron’s SEC filings were likely destroyed when World Trade Center 7 came down.”6

FACT 3: WTC Building 7 was not hit by airplane or significant debris on September 11th. It had been evacuated after the planes hit the towers. By the afternoon of September 11th, there were a few small fires of unknown origin evident in the building, and these small fires could be seen in only a few of the hundreds and hundreds of windows in the building.7

FACT 4: On September 11, 2001, at 5:20PM, EDT, World Trade Center Building 7 suddenly and rapidly collapsed. Beginning with the penthouse, all 47 stories of it imploded into its own footprint in less than seven seconds. Three different videos of Building 7’s vertical collapse – two from CBS video broadcasts, and one from an NBC news camera – can be seen online athttp://wtc7.net/videos.html.

FACT 5: On September 16th, NASA flew an airplane over the World Trade Center site, recorded infrared radiation coming from the ground, and created a thermal map. The U.S. Geological Survey analyzed this data, and determined the actual temperature of the rubble. This map shows that five days after the collapse of Building 7, the surface temperature of asection of its rubble was 1,341º F.8 This high a temperature is indicative of the use of explosives.
“WTC 7’s rubble pile continued to smolder for months.”





FACT 6: Fire Engineering magazine is the 125-year-old paper-of-record of the fire engineering community. Bill Manning, editor-in-chief, wrote an Editor’s Opinion in the January, 2002 edition. His editorial, $elling Out the Investigation, pointed out that destruction of evidence – the hurried removal of rubble which should be examined by investigators – is illegal. He also issued a “call to action”. To quote excerpts:
“For more than three months, structural steel from the World Trade Center has been and continues to be cut up and sold for scrap. Crucial evidence that could answer many questions … is on the slow boat to China …”
“I have combed through our national standard for fire investigation, NFPA 921, but nowhere in it does one find an exemption allowing the destruction of evidence for buildings over 10 stories tall.”
“Fire Engineering has good reason to believe that the ‘official investigation’ blessed by FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] and run by the American Society of Civil Engineers is a half baked farce [emphasis mine] that may have already been commandeered by political forces whose primary interests, to put it mildly, lie far afield of full disclosure. Except for the marginal benefit obtained from a three-day, visual walk-through of evidence sites conducted by ASCE investigation committee members – described by one close source as a ‘tourist trip’ – no one’s checking evidence for anything.”
“The destruction and removal of evidence must stop immediately.”
“Firefighters, this is your call to action. …contact your representatives in Congress and officials in Washington and help us correct this problem immediately.” 10 11

FACT 7: In May of 2002, FEMA published their report #403 titled World Trade Center Building Performance Study. This report claims that the fires caused the building to collapse, but that the specifics of how this is supposed to have occurred “…remain unknown at this time.”12

FACT 8: The collapse of WTC Building 7 shows five characteristics of a controlled demolition:
It “dropped directly into its own footprint in a smooth, vertical motion”;
It “collapsed completely in less than seven seconds”;
“Dust streamed out of the upper floors of Building 7 early in its collapse”;
“WTC 7’s roof inverted toward its middle as the collapse progressed”; and
“WTC 7’s rubble was mostly confined to the block on which the building stood.”13

FACT 9: “Larry Silverstein is a rather large player within the realms of 21st Century real estate, finance, and politics.”14 He “…had taken out a long lease on the World Trade Center only six weeks before 9/11. In a PBS documentary entitled ‘America Rebuilds’, originally aired in September of 2002, Silverstein made the following statement about Building 7:
‘I remember getting a call from the, er, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, “We’ve had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.” And they made that decision to pull, and we watched the building collapse.’” 15 16

FACT 10: “It is inconceivable that anyone could be running around placing explosives in exactly the right places all within seven hours. In fact, implosions take a minimum of two weeks and up to two months to plan and place the charges. The fire department of New York does not even train their personnel to do controlled demolition. They are done by highly skilled experienced specialists who plan and test far ahead.”17
FACT 11: “… [George W.] Bush’s brother, Marvin Bush, and his cousin, Wirt Walker III, were principles in the company [Stratesec, formerly named Securacom] that was in charge of security for the World Trade Center, with Walker being the CEO from 1999 until January 2002.”18

In summation: A major aspect of 9/11 has been excluded from the entire U.S. media after September 11th, and was also omitted from The 9/11 Commission Report. This was the sudden fall to earth, on September 11th, 2001, of World Trade Center Building 7. Not hit by airplane or significant debris, 300 feet from the closest Twin Tower, and with just a few small fires burning within it, at 5:20PM EDT this massive concrete and steel-framed 47-story skyscraper imploded into its own footprint in less than seven seconds. Its rapid implosion had all of the characteristics of a controlled demolition, and the World Trade Center leaseholder, Larry Silverstein, stated in so many words that the building had been collapsed by demolition. It takes weeks, if not months, to prepare the demolition of a building as large as WTC 7; this implosion could not have been engineered and implemented in seven chaotic hours on September 11th.



Sunday, August 19, 2012

Parenting by Papa

I love to hate parenting tips that the internet provides. I think it's because any crazy person can post their opinions online and simply because it's out there, it's supposed to have some merit. :) Also, I'd bet many of these so called parental experts don't have kids anyway. They probably learned from the tube watching Al Bundy in Married with Children.



With that said, I have a few pieces of advice that may run contrary to mainstream suggestions. My eldest daughter just turned ten so the majority of what I'll say applies to the rearing of kids under ten. Here goes.

Give them Band-Aids. Whenever they ask for them. Who cares if it's an owie that is full of blood or a invisible sort, that's not what matters. It's a panacea. Anything that goes wrong can and will be fixed by relenting. Just tonight, my three year-old begged for a Band-Aid for a rug burn and ten seconds after he put it on, he wanted it off. But in his mind it had done the trick. So, parents, don't ever fight it, just put on the Band-Aid.

Just put it on!


Next piece of life-changing advice. When potty training, don't read the blogs of your other parent friends and assume anything they do will be successful for you. I don't care if your kid was potty-trained at six months. One, I think you are lying, and two, I don't have the time to hold a toddler over the potty for three hours a day.

I remember spending hours in the bathroom with my first child trying to convince her that she wanted to "do a big dookie" when in reality she had no interest at all. I would use blank threats, say things I didn't mean, and cause frustration for me and my two year-old.

Did you ever hear the story about the kid who was so scared that he had pooped in his diaper that he removed it, took the poo out, and tried to hide the poo in the carpet by spreading it all over so mommy wouldn't be mad? Yeah, when I read that story I realized there must be a better way. With kids 2-5, I just think positive. I love spending $50 dollars a month on diapers. I love changing diapers while holding an intelligent conversation with my three year-old. "Hey dad, would you mind wiping my butt again, I think you might have overlooked a spot." When they are ready, they'll be ready. Don't push them to push it. :) One day they'll decide they want to go.

Last piece of potty-training advice. Don't ever use those public restrooms with the auto-flush because it will freak your kid out and set them back a few months.

Talk how you want them to talk. I had to go to Boston for some training and I stayed with a friend and his family. He has the cutest kids and I love the way the little boys talk. They are so sweet and polite. I remember thinking, "Man, I wish my kids talked so sweet and gentle." I then realized that my friend, the dad, talked the same way to his kids. It's wasn't that they had been born talking that way, they were gentle and polite because their dad talked that way. That was an eye-opener for me. My kids yell because I yell. One of the most frustrating, confusing, hard-to-accept parts about parenthood is realizing that all the actions you dislike in your kids are things they learned from you. You talk nice, and they'll talk nice.

Don't sleep with your kids. I once heard a mom say, childhood is too short to let those chances pass to bond with your child. I'll tell you one thing, if I don't get my sleep someone's childhood was going to be shorter! My philosophy is that parents need sleep to be able to have the patience to handle the situations of the next day. Can anyone explain to me the how having your child's foot in your rib cage is a bonding experience? Maybe their bad breath blowing in your nostrils does something for your relationship that I don't know about? Most people only complain about their kids being in bed with them, I don't often hear about the joy of the experience.

I will say, there are a few exceptions. If we've had a very sick child or there is thunder we make adjustments. I can honestly say however that our five children have maybe spent 30 nights sleeping in our bed with us. It is a very rare occurrence. What we do enjoy is laying in their beds with them just before they go to sleep so we can talk and cuddle.

I could probably add a few more pieces of advice but it is late. The last thing I want to say is this: there are no perfect parents. No one has it together. EVEN IF THEY SAY THEY DO ON THEIR BLOG. I've met some people who mention they love being a parent so much and how everything is perfect and there are butterflies and marshmallows in their kitchen and their children have halos, and then...I meet them and see how they interact and it is not anything like advertised.



I know many women worry often because they doesn't feel like they LOVE cooking and cleaning, and driving, and nagging, and reading, and changing poop, and cleaning up throw up, and bathing kids, and a million other things that are involved. There are people that act like they LOVE all those things, and I'm calling them all out right now. They don't. They like that overall job, but they don't LOVE it so much that they faint when thinking about how euphoric it is to pull chunks of vomit out of a carpet. And no mother sighs a giddy sigh when they reminisce about their child throwing a tantrum in Wal-mart because they couldn't buy a PEZ dispenser.

To all parents out there. Love your kids. Take it one day at a time. Don't sweat the small stuff. Give your kids a hug and tell them they are special. Read together. Play together. Get down on their level. Love them now, because it's your only chance.

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Thursday, August 16, 2012

Sky Mall

I hate flying. Every time I step on a plane I think I am going to die. A few years ago I was meeting up with some friends in Washington D.C. and I had a panic attack the morning I was supposed to fly out. I was convinced the airplane was going to crash, but I went anyway.

When my ten-year old daughter was one, I had to fly back east for work training. As I was saying my goodbyes to her in her car seat, she looked up at me and said, "Daddy go boom-boom in the plane." Needless to say, that didn't do much to calm my nerves.

Thanks be to Sky Mall magazine for helping divert my focus from a fiery, frantic death, to travel neck pillows   and recording laser pens. Sky mall is easily the most boring magazine I've spent the most time looking at.

   

Each time I board a plane and become bored within 15 minutes, I reach for the Sky Mall, browse for a few minutes and think, does anyone actually buy this stuff? So, this is the reason for this post. There are always things we see and react with the thought, "Do people really do that?"

SO, the first person that can truthful prove to me they have made a purchase on Sky Mall I will send some sort of gift to. I'm not sure what, but maybe a gift card of sorts. Tell me item you purchased, why, and if possible, send me a picture of it.

In the meantime, feel free to browse these lovely items sure to be found in a Sky Mall magazine or on skymall.com. I bet you were hoping they had a website!







Sunday, August 12, 2012

It's over

I'm going to have a hard time making it through this post dry-eyed. I think it's over. It was so out of the blue, but I guess no one every really expects it to happen. I think the way it all transpired was the biggest shocker. I mean, if you were ending a relationship, what would you expect to hear or to say? Things like:


  • There's someone else...
  • I feel trapped...
  • I don't love you anymore...
So, do you want to hear what was said to me? "Jesus doesn't love you." That's right. My three-year bond with my boy Miles might have ended with those words. It left me speechless. And in case any of you think it was just a fluke, he followed it up the next night with: "I don't want to way wiv you dad, I want mommy". He then told me, that after I was done laying in bed with my eight-year old he wanted me to leave the room.

Ok, so this comes from a boy who for three years only wanted three things. Daddy, daddy, and daddy. Who does he want to hold him? Daddy. Who does he want to change his diaper? And if he doesn't get this person he will scream? Daddy. Who does he want to take him out of his high chair and clean him? Daddy. Who does he want to hold him at Disneyland, and Lagoon, and Bear Lake all weekend? Daddy. 



Three nights ago, I'm laying beside him as we both were staring at the ceiling, just enjoying the moment. Then he spoke those unprovoked words I'll never forget and never quite understand. "Daddy, Jesus doesn't love you." WOW. Maybe it's the potty training, maybe it's the new sleeping arrangements without bunk beds, maybe it's a thousand different things. But man, I would have expected him to impersonate Usain Bolt and say "I'm a legend" before I would have expected to hear what I heard.

Oh well. Now when the kids go to bed it's Gina's job to lay with them. Maybe three years was long enough for one parent to tell bear stories and sing nursery rhymes. I write this post somewhat in jest, but deep down I'd be lying to you if I said that a part of me wasn't mourning inside. This just brings to light to hard truth that though we'd like to keep our babies as babies forever, they all do a strange thing. They grow up. They change. Now it's up to me to act like the unwanted doll in Toy Story and move on with life, all the while painfully reminiscing with these words swimming in my mind "when somebody loved me, everything was beautiful..."


Monday, August 6, 2012

Labels


First Chick-fil-A. Now this. Where is the world heading?

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Eat more chikin

Chick-fil-A has been in the news lately. Not sure if anyone has heard. Apparently Wednesday was Chick-fil-A appreciation day, as many customers arrived to show their support for Chick-fil-A president Dan Cath, who in July stated that he supports the Biblical definition of marriage. Good for them. I'm glad people support the right of a human being in the United States to share their belief.



I have two things to say about this topic. Thing 1: THIS IS NOT A LGBT ISSUE. THIS IS NOT A GAY MARRIAGE ISSUE. THIS IS NOT A RELIGIOUS ISSUE. This has to do with the right of an individual to have a belief, to express that belief, and to not be persecuted for that belief or the expression. The moment Mr. Cath said he thought biblical marriage was the correct way, a great majority of people were in an uproar calling him a bigot and accusing him of hating the LGBT community. Here's what I say to these people. One, looked up the definition of bigot. Two, does your mom hate you because you have short hair or you like weird music? Then why is Mr. Cath a hater because he doesn't agree with gay marriage? I have never, and will never think that someone hates me because they don't agree with my behavior/opinion. I could go on and on here but many others have written much more persuasive points on the subject, I just needed to get this off my chest.

As for Thing 2, this is something I will never understand. One, I don't support boycotts of any kind because, well, my Church doesn't believe in them. The LDS Church, or Mormons, also known as The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints (perhaps one of the most persecuted groups around) does not support boycotting. So I think boycotting is not a good way to resolve conflict. BUT IF I DID, man, I would come up with a better way than these Chick-fil-A opponents. Have you heard what they are going to do? If not, this comes directly from a news article I read online:

"On Friday, opponents plan on arriving at Chick-fil-A locations and kissing each other." -KSL News

Are you kidding me? I picture a gay couple tending a 3-year old and asking him what they should do to stand up to these hate-filled, chicken-eating, mongrels. The little boy says "You should go to Chick-fila-A and kiss each other. I'm poopie, change my diaper please."  Are you going to prove your point by going onto Chick-fil-A property and kissing? What is that going to solve? Other than landing another front page article on CNN, really, what is that going to do?



It's late, I'm sure I'm not making much sense, but I just had to get this off my chest. I wish people who consider themselves the hated minority would give others the same thing they are fighting for - the right to an opinion, and the right to express that opinion without persecution. I'll leave you with the wisdom of Antoine. I couldn't have said it better myself.